Faithful to the Spirit of Tragedy
by Fabian Siclier and Jacques Levy
While in Never on Sunday, Ilya wanted to believe that Medea and Oedipus ended happily with a walk by the sea, this version of Phaedra remains faithful to the original tragic spirit of the play. The modernisation of the story made Theseus an extremely rich Greek ship-owner and turned HippolytusΥ carriage into an aerodynamic Aston Martin while PhaedraΥs libations to the gods remind us of the generous gesture that AndrŽ Gide described to us: the moment she throws her precious ring in River Thames. Here, in contrast to RacineΥs Phaedra, the incestuous act ends in a wonderful scene where the intensity of passion is indicated by the rain beating against the roomΥs windows and by the flames in the fireplace behind the two firmly embraced bodies. However, Dassin admitted that setting the tragedy in the world of the wealthy was a mistake. The director does not feel very comfortable with this Greek elite, which has absolutely no relation to the poor neighbourhoods of Piraeus or the notorious ones of Soho or Pigalle. However, the choice of this setting allows him to compose some scenes evoking exaggeration. The impressive tone aims at the transcendence of the drama without which Phaedra would be an ordinary story of adultery. Through the prism of this thought we should view ThanosΥ extreme gesture when he unloads a "rainfall of roses" on the bridge of his wifeΥs yacht. On the other hand, PhaedraΥs pain, when losing her lover, is consonant with the womenΥs grief for their husbandsΥ deaths in the "S/S Phaedra" shipwreck.
Despair is equally strong for both Phaedra and the sailorsΥ wives. Dassin puts Phaedra dressed in white to move across the group of black-dressed women, who gather to learn the names of the dead to remind us that, beyond the sorrows of some wealthy people, most victims come from the lower classes. However, PhaedraΥs cruel fate, which is indicated in parts of the film (her nursemaidΥs prophetic dream, the loud noise of an airplane engine when Phaedra whispers "IΥm scared") does not make the audience sympathise with her. The same happens with the emotional conflicts, the family fights of the elite and its social manifestations; all this leave us with an artificial aftertaste. Overall, the most cheerful part of the film is the one that takes itself less seriously; the love story in London when Phaedra threatens Alexis by saying: "If you even call me mother, IΥll kill you!".